Here’s one of the possible Library expansion plans that the trustees looked at. The “old” library is the building at the top. I think it’s about 9,500 sq ft. That’s about a 50% more space than the current town offices.

2 Responses to Just an idea

That’s an interesting concept, Bob, and I have some comments. It is the first time I have seen any library plan that included keeping the old buiding. I was under the impression that the Library Trustees always planned to tear it down. One idea I had in 2010 for the old library building was to let the police department use it. The Bergeron report a couple of years back defined one of the needs of the police department to be more space. The report states that the front of the Public Safety Building, or police department, is in good condition, but they defined one area of concern: They observed that the police department was storing a considerable amount of paperwork in the attic of the building, and expressed concern about the strength of the attic rafters to hold such a weight load. The fire department also uses some rooms in the front building for their bunks, and this represents tight quarters as well. There were other life safety code issues, but they would only be triggered with a renovation, not terribly important to this conversation.
I felt that the PD could use the space in the old library building for storage of this paperwork so they could clear out their attic, and possibly move their dispatch over there to free up some more space in the police building.
The above concept brings up a few questions. The last renovation warrant article of Brewster Memorial Hall created 16,000 feet of office space with conference area, not including the remainder of the auditorium, so I question if 10,000 square feet is enough space? If you look at the above diagram you have displayed, it would appear to me that some of the parking would be on the Glidden property, so I see a possible conflict of interest with the deed restriction on that property, since it specifically designates the property for library purposes only. Would that parking area be considered for “library purposes only”? Lastly, if we would be able to move our town offices to the old library, what would we do with Brewster Memorial Hall? I don’t see it as a viable solution.

Do I think that someone would challenge building the new library and it’s parking lot on the Glidden parcel if someone parked there and went into town offices in the old library building? Do I think that the police department should move into the old Library building because they have some boxes in the attic that might cause their roof to cave in? Do I think that the town offices that have been in less than 6,000 sq ft for more than ten years would be cramped in 10,000 sq ft? No.